my stepfather had set spies to watch both Michel and me ever since his
arrival, that he had bribed the servant, who had given me Michel's note.
I ascertained too that an awful, heart-rending scene had taken place the
next morning between the son and the father.... The father had cursed
him. Michel for his part had sworn he would never set foot in his
father's house again, and had set off to Petersburg. But the blow aimed
at me by my stepfather rebounded upon himself. Semyon Matveitch
announced that he could not have him remaining there, and managing the
estate any longer. Awkward service, it seems, is an unpardonable
offence, and some one must be fixed upon to bear the brunt of the
_scandal_. Semyon Matveitch recompensed Mr. Ratsch liberally,
however: he gave him the necessary means to move to Moscow and to
establish himself there. Before the departure for Moscow, I was brought
back to the lodge, but kept as before under the strictest guard. The
loss of the 'snug little berth,' of which he was being deprived 'thanks
to me,' increased my stepfather's vindictive rage against me more than
ever.

'Why did you make such a fuss?' he would say, almost snorting with
indignation; 'upon my word! The old chap, of course, got a little too
hot, was a little too much in a hurry, and so he made a mess of it; now,
of course, his vanity's hurt, there's no setting the mischief right
again now! If you'd only waited a day or two, it'd all have been right
as a trivet; you wouldn't have been kept on dry bread, and I should have
stayed what I was! Ah, well, women's hair is long... but their wit is
short! Never mind; I'll be even with you yet, and that pretty young
gentleman shall smart for it too!'

I had, of course, to bear all these insults in silence. Semyon Matveitch
I did not once see again. The separation from his son had been a shock